PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS: FICTION: TRADE: Sunday, November 16th 2008

Published: November 16, 2008

Rankings reflect sales, for the week ended Nov. 1, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighted to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount and department stores; and newsstands. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (†) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders. Among those categories not actively tracked are: perennial sellers; required classroom reading; text, reference and test preparation guides; journals and workbooks; calorie counters; shopping guides; comics; and crossword puzzles. Expanded rankings are available on the Web: nytimes.com/books.

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PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS: FICTION: TRADE

1

24

THE SHACK, by William P. Young. (Windblown Media, $14.99.) A man whose daughter was abducted receives an invitation to an isolated shack, apparently from God. (†)

2

20

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, by Sue Monk Kidd. (Penguin, $15 and $14.) In South Carolina in 1964, a teenage girl tries to discover the secret to her mother’s past.

3

4

WORLD WITHOUT END, by Ken Follett. (New American Library, $22.) Love and intrigue in Kingsbridge, the medieval English cathedral town at the center of Follett’s “Pillars of the Earth.”

4

61

THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy. (Vintage, $14.95.) A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.

5

9

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, by Junot Daz. (Riverhead, $14.) A nerdy Dominican-American struggles to escape a family curse.

6

60

THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho. (HarperOne, $13.95.) A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.

7*

29

LOVING FRANK, by Nancy Horan. (Ballantine, $14.) A story of the romance between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney.

8

3

THE WHITE TIGER, by Aravind Adiga. (Free Press, $14.) A chauffeur in India relates the story of his transformation from manservant to entrepreneur to murderer; the winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

9

2

THE CHILDREN OF H¿RIN, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee. (Houghton Mifflin, $14.95.) In Middle-earth, an evil lord wants to destroy his rival’s children.

10

1

REMEMBER ME?, by Sophie Kinsella. (Dial, $14.) After an auto accident, a London woman loses her memory.

11

21

BAREFOOT, by Elin Hilderbrand. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $13.99.) Three women with various problems spend a transformative summer together on Nantucket.

12

8

THE ALMOST MOON, by Alice Sebold. (Little, Brown, $14.99.) A woman accustomed to satisfying the needs of her clinging family finally reaches the point of no return.

13

3

WICKED, by Gregory Maguire. (Harper, $16.) A green-skinned girl grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the West.

14

61

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen. (Algonquin, $13.95.) A young man — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.

15*

13

NIGHTS IN RODANTHE, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central, $13.99.) Romance ignites between a middle-aged man and woman at a North Carolina inn.

16

23

SECOND CHANCE, by Jane Green. (Plume, $15.) A group of 30-something friends reconsider their lives after one of their number is killed in a terrorist attack.

17

1

HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS, by Jan Karon. (Penguin, $14.95.) The Mitford character Father Tim returns to his native town to reconnect with family and friends.

18

60

THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini. (Riverhead, $15.95 and $14.) An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.

19

11

THE CHOICE, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central, $13.99.) How a North Carolina man’s decisions about love and death play out in his life.

20

1

ULTIMATE WEAPON, by Shannon McKenna. (Brava//Kensington, $14.) A criminal turned jewelry designer, a covert operative and a gangster out for revenge tangle in this McCloud Brothers romantic thriller.